Pope Francis refuses to provide clear guidance to American Catholics voting for President

Not what i said...you say the Church will change, i said it won't. Many of you said the church already changed and communion to homosexuals and divorced is a forgone conclusion. I say it hasn't happened...so don't post like it has. And to insinuate i agree with that shows your arguments are all attacks and slanders.

 

'Tis you who slander me, if you are referring to my comments. Nowhere did I say The Church has Herself changed. But there are many institutions of society that have and there are disparate and diverse elements within The Church who seek to impose the abomination of desolation. My apology for questioning whether you agree with all this, but I would think we can't afford to be complacent. Arianism, the Great Schism and the Reformation occurred under papal watch. No matter what we think of Pope Francis, whether it be saint or heretic, disaster can happen in spite or because of him. I hope desperately to be proven wrong and that no dangers exist.

Again, my apologies for any offence caused.

 

One thing I like about Pope Francis is that he reminds us constantly of our Christian duty to care for the poor. Although I have reservations about his approach to addressing the problem of global poverty and misery, I do believe that he genuinely cares for the poor. We do well to remember that following Church teaching on marriage and sexual morality is only part of our duty. We are obliged, also, to care for the poor, the sick and downtrodden, welcome the stranger, pray for and forgive our enemies. I know that many here do all of those things but I have plenty of room for improvement.

 

I believe you are right.

About 15 years ago, a holy priest was speaking to a group of Catholics who were in a program for lay formation. They were just finishing up their consecration to our Blessed Mother. Father P, who had himself a mystical life with all of heaven it seemed, said that many present would be martyred, many have the gift of healing, many would prophesy, and some would raise the dead. He said that in the near future, the mystical gifts given to God's people will rival and exceed those given to the early church. You could hear an audible gasp as they digested that information.

 

Like everyone else, I honestly don't know.

The infiltration of the Church seems about ready to burst at the seams. Many of us are waiting for the official yet muddled change of doctrine or at the very least, a radical change in pastoral practices. Both are disastrous.

I don't hear the "Go and sin no more" portion of the love from some of the most vocal Church leaders.

 

Yes it is inferred in the great prophesy of St Mary Louis Grignion De Montford,

http://op54rosary.ning.com/profiles/blogs/end-time-prophecy-of-saint


....towards the end of the world, ....Almighty God and His holy Mother are to raise up saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs."17

"These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her spirit, supported by her arms, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin... "18

"They will be like thunderclouds flying through the air at the slightest breath of the Holy Spirit. Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, they will shower down the rain of God's word and of eternal life. They will thunder against sin; they will storm against the world; they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life and for death, they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God's word all those against whom they are sent by Almighty God."19

"They will be true apostles of the latter times to whom the Lord of Hosts will give eloquence and strength to work wonders and carry off glorious spoils from His enemies. They will sleep without gold or silver and, more important still, without concern in the midst of other priests, ecclesiastics and clerics. Yet they will have the silver wings of the dove enabling them to go wherever the Holy Spirit calls them, filled as they are, with the resolve to seek the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Wherever they preach, they will leave behind them nothing but the gold of love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law."20

"They will have the two-edged sword of the Word of God in their mouths and the bloodstained standard of the Cross on their shoulders. They will carry the Crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart.21

"Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Christ... But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her."22

 

I wish I could shake off the sinking feeling that Heaven is leaving us to stew in our own juice.

Pope Francis has named seventeen new Cardinals, thirteen of whom will be able to vote for his successor. Three of them Cupich, Tobin and Farrell are from the US. If that weren't bad enough, have a look at the new Cardinal from Belgium: http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/...nt-of-belgian-bishop-jozef-de-kesel-a-mistake

I think these thirteen will bring to 44 the number of Cardinals he has appointed who will have a say in who succeeds him. Heaven help us.

 

When the West's demonic proxy war against Syria is finally over, I think the world will be shocked to learn the amount cruelty that was on display there against the Syrian Catholics and other religious and ethnic minorities. And I feel we will also learn that many saintly and miraculous things took place in Syria during this assault by the proxy armies of the anti-christian West.

 

With the political establishment and the media in on the cover-up, most people may never discover the truth.

 

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/

Anything But an Example For the World. The German Church Is a Black Hole

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Money, bureaucracy, worldliness, excommunications for those who do not pay. The biting accusation of Joseph Ratzinger against Catholicism in Germany. The same one that enjoys the favor of Pope Francis

by Sandro Magister





ROME, October 11, 2016 – “In Germany some persons are always trying to destroy me,” pope emeritus Benedict XVI has said in the book-length interview released in recent days.

And he has cited the example of the “fabrication” mounted against him by some of his countrymen when he changed the old prayer of Good Friday against the “perfidi Iudaei.”

But in the same book Joseph Ratzinger has lodged against the German Church an accusation much more general in its scope: that of being too “worldly” and therefore of having disregarded the strong appeal for “de-mundanification” that he issued during his last journey to Germany as pope, in the memorable address in Freiburg on September 25, 2011:

> Meeting with Catholics engaged in the life of the Church and society

The key passages of that “revolutionary” address - his definition - of the pontificate of Benedict XVI are reproduced further below.

But first there is another point of the book-length interview that calls for attention. It is the one in which Ratzinger speaks out against the system of ecclesiastical taxation in Germany and its nefarious effects:

“In effect I have serious doubts about the correctness of the system as it is. I do not mean that there should not be an ecclesiastical tax, but the automatic excommunication of those who do not pay it, in my view, is not sustainable. [. . .] In Germany we have a Catholicism that is structured and well-paid, in which Catholics are often employees of the Church and have a union mentality in regard to it. For them, the Church is only an employer to be criticized. They are not motivated by a dynamic of faith. I believe that this represents the great danger of the Church in Germany: there are so many collaborators under contract that the institution is turning into a worldly bureaucracy. [. . .] This situation saddens me, this excess of money that yet again is not enough, and the bitterness that it generates, the sarcasm of the circles of intellectuals.”

There is a striking contrast between this tough criticism and the favor that the German Church itself enjoys today from the pope who succeeded Benedict, as if this were the avant-garde of the desired renewal of Christianity worldwide under the banner of poverty and mercy, when instead it is plain for all to see that in Germany the Church is for the most part neither poor nor merciful, but if anything suffocated by its own apparatus and above all on its knees to the world on many crucial questions of morality and dogma.

*

In order to understand Ratzinger’s criticisms better, it must be kept in mind that in Germany the Kirchensteuer, the ecclesiastical tax, is obligatory by law for all those who are registered as members of the Catholic Church or the Protestant Churches.

This tax brings the German Catholic Church more than 5 billion euro per year. An imposing sum, more than five times as much, for example, than the revenue brought in by the Italian Church with a state system of contribution - the “eight per thousand” - that is not obligatory but voluntary, and with a constituency of Catholics more than double that of Germany.

But since in Germany those who do not want to pay this tax must cancel their membership in the Church with a public act before a competent civil authority, and since these cancellations have been increasing in recent years, with the effect of reducing revenues, the German Catholic Church has implemented a countermeasure to discourage this attrition.

It did so in 2012 with a decree that stipulates for the leave-takers a series of deadly canonical sanctions, as if they were excommunicated and infected, without sacraments or even burial:

> Decreto generale della conferenza episcopale tedesca

To begin with, those who cancel their membership in the Church “may not receive the sacraments of penance, of the Eucharist, of confirmation and of the anointing of the sick, except in danger of death.”

And if then, after an attempt at reconciliation made by the local pastor, the restoration of the reprobate to the fold should fail, there could be even worse in store for him:

“When in the behavior of the believer who has declared his departure from the Church there should be seen an action that is schismatic, heretical, or of apostasy, the ordinary will see to taking the corresponding measures.”

A long way from mercy. In Germany, the divorced and remarried receive communion everywhere with no worries, homosexual marriages are increasingly blessed in church, but woe to anyone who removes his signature from the payment of the Kirchensteuer.

In an interview in the “Schwäbische Zeitung” of July 17, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Ratzinger’s prefect of the pontifical household and personal secretary, also denounced this glaring contradiction:

“How does the Catholic Church in Germany react to those who do not pay the tax for the Church? With automatic exclusion from the ecclesial communion, which means: excommunication. That is excessive, incomprehensible. Dogmas can be called into question and no one is driven out. Is it perhaps that the non-payment of the Kirchensteuer is a more serious infraction than transgressions against the truths of faith? The impression is that, as long as faith is at stake, the matter is not so tragic, but when money comes into play, the time for joking around is over.”

Not to mention the influences that the German Church can wield over many dioceses in the southern hemisphere, which it finances with its revenues, in addition to the Holy See itself, of which it is a prominent benefactor.

But now let’s hear from Ratzinger and his “revolutionary” address in Freiburg of September 25, 2011, as unheeded as it is of extraordinary relevance, not only for the Church of Germany.

___________


For a Church “detached from the world”

by Benedict XVI


For some decades now we have been experiencing [in Germany] a decline in religious practice and we have been seeing substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away from church life. This prompts the question: should the Church not change? Must she not adapt her offices and structures to the present day, in order to reach the searching and doubting people of today? […]

con't

 

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Yes, there are grounds for change. There is a need for change. Every Christian and the whole community of the faithful are called to constant change. […] But the fundamental motive for change is the apostolic mission of the disciples and the Church herself.

The Church, in other words, must constantly rededicate herself to her mission. […] “Preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15).

Through the demands and constraints of the world, however, this witness is constantly obscured, the relationships are alienated and the message is relativized. […] In order to accomplish her mission, [the Church] will need again and again to set herself apart from her surroundings, to become in a certain sense “unworldly”.

The Church’s mission has its origins in the mystery of the triune God, in the mystery of his creative love. […] It has come down to humanity, to us, in a particular way through the incarnation and self-offering of God’s Son, […] not merely to confirm the world in its worldliness, […] but in order to change it. The Christ event includes the inconceivable fact of what the Church Fathers call a "sacrum commercium", an exchange between God and man. The Fathers explain it in this way: we have nothing to give God, we have only our sin to place before him. And this he receives and makes his own, while in return he gives us himself and his glory. […]

he Church owes her whole being to this unequal exchange. She has nothing of her own to offer to him who founded her. […] Her raison d’être consists in being a tool of redemption, in letting herself be saturated by God’s word and in bringing the world into loving unity with God. […] And therefore she must always open up afresh to the cares of the world, to which she herself belongs, and give herself over to them, in order to make present and continue the holy exchange that began with the Incarnation.

In the concrete history of the Church, however, a contrary tendency is also manifested, namely that the Church becomes self-satisfied, settles down in this world, becomes self-sufficient and adapts herself to the standards of the world. Not infrequently, she gives greater weight to organization and institutionalization than to her vocation to openness towards God, her vocation to opening up the world towards the other.

In order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God. […] One could almost say that history comes to the aid of the Church here through the various periods of secularization, which have contributed significantly to her purification and inner reform.

Secularizing trends – whether by expropriation of Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like – have always meant a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness, for in the process she as it were sets aside her worldly wealth and once again completely embraces her worldly poverty. […]

History has shown that, when the Church becomes less worldly, her missionary witness shines more brightly. Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the Church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world, she can be truly open to the world. She can live more freely her vocation to the ministry of divine worship and service of neighbor. The missionary task, which is linked to Christian worship and should determine its structure, becomes more clearly visible.

The Church opens herself to the world not in order to win men for an institution with its own claims to power, but in order to lead them to themselves by leading them to him of whom each person can say with Saint Augustine: he is closer to me than I am to myself (cf. Confessions, III, 6, 11). […]

It is not a question here of finding a new strategy to relaunch the Church. Rather, it is a question of setting aside mere strategy and seeking total transparency, not bracketing or ignoring anything from the truth of our present situation, but living the faith fully here and now in the utterly sober light of day, appropriating it completely, and stripping away from it anything that only seems to belong to faith, but in truth is mere convention or habit. […]

All the more, then, it is time once again to discover the right form of detachment from the world, to move resolutely away from the Church’s worldliness. This does not, of course, mean withdrawing from the world: quite the contrary. A Church relieved of the burden of worldliness is in a position, not least through her charitable activities, to mediate the life-giving strength of the Christian faith to those in need, to sufferers and to their carers. […] Only a profound relationship with God makes it possible to reach out fully towards others, just as a lack of outreach towards neighbour impoverishes one’s relationship with God.

Openness to the concerns of the world means, then, for the Church that is detached from worldliness, bearing witness to the primacy of God’s love according to the Gospel through word and deed, here and now.

 

I keep thinking that nothing would shock me anymore. But I was wrong. This is not only unbelievable but makes me furious. Where is our voice, our church hierarchy, the outrage at being hijacked by the anti-church?

This is an education that no one wants but is desperately needed. Thank you.

 

Germany's not the only country to have a state sponsored tax.

Austria
Every recognized religious group in Austria can collect church tax at a rate of 1.1%, though currently only the Catholic Church makes use of that opportunity. Church tax is compulsory for Catholics in Austria. This tax was introduced by Adolf Hitler in 1939. After World War II, the tax was retained in order to keep the Church independent of political powers.

Croatia
The Roman Catholic Church in Croatia receives significant state financial support and other benefits established in concordats between the Government and the Vatican. By the special agreement between Holy See and Republic of Croatia, Croatia is, through state budget, financing salaries and pensions of clergy (even the military chaplains), church sacral objects maintenance and restoration, building and running of church schools and universities.

Percentage-wise, about 0.46% of state budget ends up funding activities of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia.

Italy
Main article: Eight per thousand
Taxpayers in Italy pay a mandatory eight per thousand tax, and have the option to choose to whom they will assign the monies. This tax amounts to 0.8% of the total income tax (IRPEF) and every taxpayer can choose the recipient of the contribution on their tax form. Regardless of whether the taxpayer expresses a preference or not, the 0.8% is already included in their tax levy.

Sweden
The members of Church of Sweden pay church fee, which varies between municipalities, but can be as much as 2%. Church and state are separated as of 2000, however the burial tax (begravningsavgift) is paid by everyone regardless of membership.

In a recent development, the Swedish government has agreed to continue collecting from individual taxpayers the annual payment that has always gone to the church. But now the fee will be an optional checkoff box on the tax return. The government will allocate the money collected to Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and other faiths as well as the Lutherans, with each taxpayer directing where his or her taxes should go

Switzerland
There is no official state church in Switzerland. However, all the 26 cantons (states) financially support at least one of the three traditional denominations – Roman Catholic, Old Catholic (in Switzerland Christ Catholic), or Evangelical Reformed – with funds collected through taxation. Each canton church tax may formally have to leave the church. In some cantons private companies are unable to avoid payment of the church tax.

 

German Journalist: Archbishop De Kesel’s Being Newly Chosen for the Cardinalate Is Due to Cardinal Danneels
October 11, 2016
Maike Hickson

The recent announcement that Pope Francis has chosen seventeen new cardinals has already raised much concern and debates among Catholics. The decision to select Archbishop Jozef de Kesel of Brussels, Belgium to be now a cardinal seems especially to have become a matter of controversy.

An interview published in Cologne, Germany on 10 October on the website Domradio.de concerning Archbishop Jozef de Kesel himself has already received much attention. For example, the Austrian website Kath.net, as well as the Dutch website Katholieknieuwsblad.nl, have already reported on this interview given by Domradio’s journalist and specialist in theology, Jan Hendrik Stens.

Stens claims in this interview concerning Francis’ new set of cardinals that in Brussels – where de Kesel himself is now the Archbishop – there has been a rather frequent rotation of personnel in the recent past. For example, the former Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, according to Stens, “is one of the great supporters of [Pope] Francis.” Already in 2010, Danneels’ own preferred successor to become Archbishop of Brussels was supposed to have been de Kesel, a protegée of Danneels. However, says Sten, the then-reigning Pope Benedict XVI chose André-Joseph Léonard, instead, to be the Archbishop of Brussels. It was then only Pope Francis himself who later, in 2015, chose de Kesel to be the successor of the then-retiring Archbishop Léonard in Brussels.

Stens thus comments, as follows, on this most recent development with regard to the pope’s decision to select de Kesel to be a new cardinal: “Now Francis nominates Jozef de Kesel – who originally had been meant to be Danneel’s successor [in Brussels] – as Cardinal. It is perhaps not easily to be dismissed that Danneels as Emeritus still has had a direct hand in this new action. After all, he is known to be the popemaker [“Papstmacher”] of Francis, and he was also one of the participants at the Synod on the Family in Rome, even though there were protests in Belgium against it, because Danneels had been accused of not having especially helped to clear up the abuse case there [concerning Bishop Roger Vangheluwe]. And at the presentation of his own biography last fall [2015], Danneels admitted to have been part of a group of reform-oriented cardinals which he incautiously denominated to be ‘mafia-like’. Everything thus has a certain ‘little taste or overtone’, but – also in the Church – there are [preferential] politics being made.”

Also important to note in this context is that the website Domradio.de is the official radio station of the Diocese of Cologne, Germany. Thus this report comes to us from an official ecclesiastical source and not from some conservative or tradition-oriented source.

Additionally, it is noteworthy that Bishop de Kesel himself is in favor of married priests, proposing to allow them now also for the Latin Rite, similar to the practice of the Eastern Rite. He also reportedly has recently decided to shut down a flourishing conservative seminary in his own Diocese. The Belgian prelate has additionally espoused other troubling positions, for example, concerning homosexual relationships and also women’s ordinations.